Re: [ros-dev] Reset, Reboot, Restart, legal issues and the long road to 0.3

[Magnus Olsen]

Microsoft licen over windows source code
url :
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/licensingbasics/sharedsourc…

I copy and paste from ms website here

Overview
Over the past 5 years, more than 80 technologies have been made available
through Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative. Additionally, more than 600
non-Microsoft technologies have been released under a Shared Source license.
Like most organizations dealing with the licensing of source code, Microsoft
has utilized a range of approaches regarding the rights associated with a
given source code release. This has resulted in a variety of source code
licenses being used for Microsoft source code releases.

Based on the experience gained through Shared Source, Microsoft has drafted
three simplified licenses for future Shared Source releases. These licenses
have the following attributes:

      . Short and easy to understand - The new licenses are typically
shorter than a typewritten page and are easy to read and understand.

      . Effective and modern - Although simple, the licenses are designed to
be effective and to reflect modern best practices in source code licensing.

      . Efficient - By using three simplified licenses, Microsoft will be
able to streamline its own internal source code release process, which will
allow for more rapid Microsoft source code releases.

      . Ecosystem-friendly - Using three simple and well-understood licenses
help to simplify source code sharing throughout Microsoft's various software
ecosystems, and help to avoid excessive license proliferation.


These new licenses represent a broad spectrum of approaches needed to
facilitate an ever-growing, rich set of technologies for release.

The three licenses are:

      . Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL) - The Ms-PL is the least
restrictive of the Microsoft source code licenses. It allows you to view,
modify, and redistribute the source code for either commercial or
non-commercial purposes. Under the Ms-PL, you may change the source code and
share it with others. You may also charge a licensing fee for your modified
work if you wish. This license is most commonly used for developer tools,
applications, and components.

      . Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL) - The Ms-CL is a license that is
best used for collaborative development projects. This type of license is
commonly referred to as a reciprocal source code license and carries
specific requirements if you choose to combine Ms-CL code with your own
code. The Ms-CL allows for both non-commercial and commercial modification
and redistribution of licensed software and carries a per-file reciprocal
term.

      . Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL) - The Ms-RL is a reference-only
license that allows licensees to view source code in order to gain a deeper
understanding of the inner workings of a Microsoft technology. It does not
allow for modification or redistribution. This license is used primarily for
technologies such as development libraries.


Source code licensing is an inherently complex topic. There are many
possible permutations or interpretations of any given license. It is not our
intent to redefine all source code licensing, rather to simplify the
approach taken by Microsoft. Existing Shared Source offerings will remain
under the terms and conditions of their existing licenses. The new license
templates will apply to future Shared Source releases only.

The Shared Source license templates do not apply to the Enterprise Source
Licensing Program, Systems Integrator Source Licensing Program, OEM Source
Licensing Program, MVP Source Licensing Program, Windows CE Premium Source
Licensing Programs, or the Government Security Program.

Microsoft supports the right of a developer to make use of any license and
highly recommends that you get appropriate legal advice regarding your
choice of source code license.

Top of page
Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL)
The Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL) is the least restrictive of the
Microsoft source code licenses. It allows you to view, modify, and
redistribute the source code for either commercial or non-commercial
purposes. Under the Ms-PL, you may change the source code and share it with
others. You may also charge a licensing fee for your modified work if you
wish.

The copyright and patent grants are both royalty free, meaning that you do
not have to pay anything to Microsoft to make use of the source code. There
is no obligation for you to publish any changes you make in either binary or
source code form. You do need to keep any notices in the code for copyright,
patent, trademarks, or for any other forms of attribution.

Microsoft has created a limited version, the Microsoft Limited Permissive
License (Ms-LPL), of this license to be used for restricting usage to the
Windows platform only. The platform restriction is a measure that Microsoft,
as a commercial software provider, may choose for a particular source code
release in order to enable positive interaction with Windows-based
developers. This version of the license will be employed on a case-by-case
basis based upon commercial considerations.

Microsoft can not provide legal advice on the use or implications of this
license. We recommend that you get appropriate legal advice before making
source licensing decisions.

Top of page
Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL)
The Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL) is a license that is best used for
collaborative development projects. This type of license is commonly
referred to as a reciprocal source code license and carries specific
requirements if you choose to combine Ms-CL code with your own code. Nearly
all current reciprocal licenses are based on the act of distribution to
trigger their terms. The Ms-CL seeks to apply the reciprocal terms in a
commercially reasonable fashion and to give developers clear guidance as to
when the Ms-CL's reciprocal provisions come into play.

Developers often have a range of architectural options at their disposal
when crafting a particular product or solution. They frequently have the
option to design a larger work as a series of separate files or components
that communicate with each other at runtime on the end user's computer, as
opposed to one monolithic piece of code that is distributed to the end user
as a single file. Although these architectural differences may not be
obvious to the end user, they may have significant licensing implications
for you as the developer, particularly if you use Ms-CL code in creating the
larger work. The Ms-CL (like the Mozilla Public License) works on a
"file-by-file" basis. This means that if you use some Ms-CL code in a
particular file then the entire file that contains the Ms-CL source code
(including any other code in that file, no matter who wrote it), must be
redistributed in source code form under the terms of the Ms-CL. On the other
hand, for any files in your larger work that contain no Ms-CL code, you are
free to license those files under the terms of your choice. This is true
regardless of how these "non-Ms-CL" files interact with or communicate with
the Ms-CL files at runtime. In other words, if you release code under the
Ms-CL and someone includes it in a file in their project (and then
distributes their project to others), they must distribute under the Ms-CL
anything that is in the specific file that contains your original work.
While this file-by-file threshold might at first seem arbitrary, it has the
benefit of being an easy to interpret, bright line rule.

Thus, the intent of the reciprocal license is to use licensing as a
mechanism to keep certain community-based code "in the community," while
allowing companies to commercialize and license (under terms of their
choice) their "value add" code that interacts with the community-based code.

The copyright and patent grants are both royalty free, meaning that you do
not have to pay anything to Microsoft to make use of the source code. You do
need to keep any notices in the code for copyright, patent, trademarks, or
for any other forms of attribution.

Microsoft has created a limited version, the Microsoft Limited Community
License (Ms-LCL), of this license to be used for restricting usage to the
Windows platform only. The platform restriction is a measure that Microsoft,
as a commercial software provider, may choose for a particular source code
release in order to enable positive interaction with Windows-based
developers. This version of the license will be employed on a case-by-case
basis based upon commercial considerations.

Microsoft can not provide legal advice on the use or implications of this
license. We recommend that you get appropriate legal advice before making
source licensing decisions.

Top of page
Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL)
The Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL) is the most restrictive of the
Microsoft source code licenses. The license prohibits all use of source code
other than the viewing of the code for reference purposes. The intent of
this license is to enable Microsoft to release, for review purposes only,
more sensitive intellectual property assets.

The most common use of this license will be with developer libraries where
modification is not a requirement for making use of the source code. In
these cases, the importance of transparency is based on the need for
developers to more deeply understand the inner workings of a specific set of
technology. In doing so, the developers will be more effective in writing
software that makes use of the shared library.

The copyright and patent grants are both royalty free, meaning that you do
not have to pay anything to Microsoft to make use of the source code. The
license limits the source code release to use on the Windows platform only.

Microsoft can not provide legal advice on the use or implications of this
license. We recommend that you get appropriate legal advice before making
source licensing decisions.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Fuchs" <fuchs.martin(a)gmail.com>
To: "ReactOS Development List" <ros-dev(a)reactos.org>
Sent: den 27 January 2006 11:29
Subject: Re: [ros-dev] Reset, Reboot, Restart,legal issues and the long road
to 0.3


> >   We know of
> > four developers who have had access to leaked sources prior
> >  to working on ReactOS and while they no longer have copies of the
> >  source code in question, each of the developers have told us in
> >  private which sections of the sources they were exposed to. As such
> >  the project has amending the IP document as a fourth step of
> >  protection 
> >   4) any developer that had access to leaked
> > sources is baned from
> >  contributing code to the project for any of the modules that are the
> >  same as leaked sources they examined. 
> >   So to clarify that, lets say someone saw some of
> > the leaked Windows
> >  source code in version.dll, then they would be unable to contribute
> >  code to the ReactOS project for that dll. 
> >   It is our hope that a court case will arise and
> > declare Microsoft's
> >  Windows code is no longer under Trade Secret protection so these
> >  developers who did have access to some of the leaked sources will be
> >  free to contribute again to all sections of the project. 
>  Steven,
>
>  I can't sign this point 4) and your hope for some court case. The rule
doesn't
>   go far enough. You know the vote about this point was
> only a vote by 
majority.
>   To be sure to avoid any legal problems, anyone who had
> access to
>  the leaked code should not contribute anything to at least that parts,
>  which are covered by the leaked source code. This covers any area
>  of the leaked code - just to be sure. Of course it would be better to
>  abstain from that developer completely.
>
>  In my mind it's not important if there has been some court order.
>  I can remember quite clear the time, when the news about the leaked
>  Windows source code came up. The advice at Wine and also here
>  was to _not_ look at those code in any case. Who did it nevertheless
>  should have known what he did. At least in my mind it's only allowed
>  to look at some code if the author (in this case Microsoft) permitted it.
>  Be there a valid juridical trade secret or not... Work derived from such
>  illegitimate looks should be avoided in a free implementation of
>  Windows at any means.
>
>  Regards,
>
>      Martin
>
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>  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
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